There are many industries today that package food products, drug products, etc. into premeasured bags by means of a device called a Bag Form Fill and Seal Machine; said machines being readily available on the market and being commonly known as form fill and seal machines. However, a problem occurs when it comes time to package the bags from the form fill and seal machine to a carton. In most situations the loading of the carton is done by individuals who also count the bags as they are placing them into the carton. This means of filling a carton is both time consuming and expensive. Labor today is not only expensive but unreliable. In most situations the laborer places too many or too few bags into the carton which in turn increases costs and leads to problems with the user. Further, when the bags are packed into the cartons, they do not lay flat which necessitates the need for a larger carton to accommodate them; again increasing the cost. Also, bag damage is caused when the bags are placed into the carton in a hap-hazard manner, resulting in loss of product and added costs.
There is a great need for an apparatus that can effectively and efficiently take a pre-packaged commodity from a form fill and seal machine or other type machine and accurately and efficiently place a pre-set number of bags into a carton and then transfer the carton to an output terminal.
The most automated packing system known to me for this type of commodity is where the bags are automatically counted; however, the loading of bags into empty cartons is accomplished by laborers.
A major disadvantage with the existing types of packaging systems is the amount of floor space it takes. This disadvantage is eliminated by my invention. The floor space my invention requires is substantially reduced from the existing systems known to me.